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Are We Inching Toward All Out War?

When Russia sent in aircraft to help the Syrians fight against the rebels…..I wrote then that this was leading to a big mistake that could take the US and Russia into a confrontation……

Well the worse case scenario just happened…..

The US military shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet Sunday that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against ISIS militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict. The US had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before Sunday’s confrontation, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. While the US has said since it began recruiting, training, and advising what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight ISIS that it would protect them from potential Syrian government retribution, this was the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise, the AP reports.

The US-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a statement that a US F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 after it dropped bombs near the US partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The shootdown was near Tabqa, a Syrian town in an area that has been a weekslong focus of fighting against ISIS militants by the SDF as they surround the city of Raqqa and attempt to retake it from ISIS. The US military statement said it acted in “collective self-defense” of its partner forces and that the US did not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters. “The coalition’s mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon said.

The Russians have a retort……

Russia’s defense ministry says it will treat US-led coalition planes in Syria that venture west of the Euphrates River as targets after the US military shot down a Syrian Air Force jet on Sunday, reports the AP. Moscow also suspended a military hotline the two nations have used to coordinate air missions over Syria, reports the New York Times. Russia condemned the US downing of the Syrian government fighter jet as a “military aggression” and demanded a fuller explanation. The US has said the Syrian jet dropped bombs near its partner forces, but Syria said its jet was attacking ISIS militants.

“All flying objects, including planes and drones of the international coalition, detected west of the Euphrates, will be followed by Russian air defense systems as targets,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The downing of the warplane—the first time in the conflict that the US has shot down a Syrian jet—came as Iran fired several ballistic missiles at ISIS positions in eastern Syria in retaliation for two attacks by the extremists in Tehran earlier this month that killed 17 people. Areas of northern Syria west of the Euphrates were controlled by ISIS before Syrian government forces captured most of them in recent months

Where will this end?

We know how Trump feels about using force……will that be the answer?

I mentioned the illegality of U.S. actions in Syria in an earlier post, but I wanted to say a bit more on that point. There has never been a Congressional vote authorizing U.S. military operations in Syria against anyone, and there has been scant debate over any of the goals that the U.S. claims to be pursuing there. The U.S. launches attacks inside Syria with no legal authority from the U.N. or Congress, and it strains credulity that any of these operations have anything to do with individual or collective self-defense. The U.S. wages war in Syria simply because it can.

I don’t see any war crisis looming on the horizon with Russia. On the other hand, getting into this dumb-ass conflict with everyone fighting anyone is bound to cause tension. Russia is saying what it needs to say to show it’s support for Assad.

Here’s the thing to remember with Russia. They are making millions if not billions over there from American business.. just as American business is making millions if not billions. There’s a huge Russian elite that’s grown wealthier over the last decade; millionaires and billionaires have dramatically increased. Hell, that’s one reason why everyone suspects Trump has been messing with them over the years. It’s all about capital investment.
Example…. a week or so back the press covered a segment about some “new” Russian dissident and in a video segment showing the local Russian police jostling him about I noticed a cop, dressed in typical police “confrontation” gear carrying a Motorola walkie-talkie. Yes.. being the radio nerd as I am I notice those things. Anyway… it opens the observations… there’s obvious big business trade going on over there as Motorola is BIG in electronics and radio communications. Also… besides the majority of U.S. police departments in this country using Motorola equipment, Motorola, I suspect, is a U.S. government prime contractor for radio comm equipment (along with a couple others) with the military and government intel and law enforcement departments (FBI, CIA, yada, yada)… and it’s selling it’s products to the Russians on the open market. Now.. there’s no secret technology here, I am sure. Typical police communications requirements over there would be the same here and likely the equipment is the same. Although one wonders if Motorola has been selling to the Russian military. I also know Motorola equipment on that scale does require some local service and maintenance… and if there’s some computer technology (as used in typical dispatch centers) then you most surely need local support. So this is much more than just selling them a few walkie-talkies.
My point here with this example is to illustrate that we (and some other countries) are deeply economically entwined with Russia more than the average person understands. So very likely no one is going to a shooting war over matters of Putin ideology of Russia’s place in the world… or Trump’s ideology of America’s place in the world. This is part of the “good” side of globalization… economic prosperity.

Good article and honestly it echos pretty much all the posts and replies made on your blog, chuq. The truly scary part is that the 36% who favor Trump actually don’t see any of this. I mean, even if I totally support some candidate with passion and measured devotion.. it’s NEVER a total blind devotion where I surrender my common sense. This still amazes me.

A war that is capable of ending civilizations has been inevitable ever since the days the Cold War began and it is not “If” but “When.” Everybody senses it! The magma is building beneath the crust and sooner or later the eruption will occur and wipe every living thing off the face of the earth for thousands of miles in every direction.